I know there are many people out there who don’t watch the daily drivel emanating from their 72 inch HD boob tubes. I don’t blame them. Most of the shows on TV are dumbed down to the level of their audience of government educated zombies. The facebooking, twittering, texting, instagraming generation is too shallow, too self-consumed, and too intellectually lazy to connect the dots, understand symbolism or learn moral lessons from well-written thought-provoking TV shows. But there have been a few exceptions over the last few years. Breaking Bad, House of Cards, and Walking Dead are intelligent, brilliantly scripted, morally ambiguous, psychologically stimulating TV shows challenging your understanding of how the world really works.
The Walking Dead is much more than a gory, mindless, teenage zombie flick. Personally, I find myself interpreting the imagery, metaphorical storylines, and morality lessons of Walking Dead within the larger context of cultural, political, and social decay rapidly consuming our society today. I don’t pretend to know the thought process or intent of the writers, but I see plot parallels symbolizing current day issues plaguing our empire of debt. Their mid-season opener was one of the most intense shocking episodes of the entire series. It was titled No Way Out, as the main characters appeared to be trapped in a no win situation with long odds and little hope of surviving.
From my vantage point, I see four explicit types of characters inhabiting the world of the Walking Dead. There are the infected mindless zombies roaming the countryside in search of flesh to consume. They are oblivious to the world around them, unable to think, feel, or act human. They can be distracted and led in different directions by loud noises or other diversions. Then there are the still human zombies inhabiting the walled city of Alexandria who are sentient, thinking, frightened men and women, not prepared to face the harsh reality of an unfair brutal world and the consequences of not fighting the forces of evil. They cower behind their walls and hope for the best.
There are bands of nomadic lawless gangs wandering the barren countryside, living off the scraps left behind by civilization and taking what they want through brute force. They abandoned any sense of morality as the world spun out of control. Killing innocent people to achieve their ends is fair game in their survivalist worldview. They see anarchy as an opportunity to loot, steal, murder and disrespect the rights of others.
Anarchy is essentially the absence of institutional coercion. It doesn’t mean chaos, with human beings automatically becoming bandits and murderers. Humans cooperate, trade, exercise personal responsibility and create social order without the dictates of a government ruler. What binds society together are not thousands of overbearing laws and a ruthless police state, it’s basically peer pressure, moral suasion, and social censure. We interact with other humans every day, without some higher authority dictating how it should be done.
The cohort of decent men and women trudging through the southern regions of a fallen America experience horrific scenes, but maintain their humanity despite anarchy. The main characters (Rick, Daryl, Michone, Carol, Carl, Glenn, and Maggie) approach every day with their eyes wide open. In a setting where there is no government, no enforceable laws, no police, and no higher authority to provide guidance on how to approach every dangerous situation and ethical dilemma, they choose the honorable path.
As the crumbling remnants of a once mighty nuclear superpower decays, this tight-knit group of heavily armed citizens relies upon their guile, intelligence, courage, and moral backbone to try and rebuild a new society. They are honorable, bold and resolute as they fight the ravenous brain dead zombies and the malicious roving mobs swarming over the apocalyptic terrain while attempting to turn the cowering cowards of Alexandria into courageous patriots who see the world as it is rather than as they wish it to be. In a catastrophic situation where all governmental functions are non-existent, it is those who are physically prepared, self-sufficient, mentally strong, heavily armed and able to deal with dire circumstances through the lens of reality, who will survive.
The No Way Out episode opens in the midst of a horrifying crisis within the bigger ongoing crisis. The village of Alexandria had successfully walled off their community from the outside world and had grown soft as they failed to grasp the nature of their perilous circumstances. They passively believed walls would always protect them; weapons were barbaric and unnecessary, and preparing for an adverse turn in conditions was pointless. But misfortune and a threat to their very survival did arrive. They were attacked by a band of murdering thieves and bad luck befell their community when their wall was breached. Their lack of preparation, inability to utilize firearms, and absence of courage to confront the dangerous threats, left them helpless in the face of a life or death situation.
The two types of zombies inhabiting the world of the Walking Dead represents two distinctive types of people populating our country today, as we relentlessly meander towards our own rendezvous with destiny. Our country is already disintegrating, as unpayable debt, endemic corruption, military overreach, civic decay, and moral degeneration coalesce to insure a societal collapse. It’s not a matter of if, but when. The zombies are unaware and apathetic, as their inability to think critically has left them trapped in an “all is well” paradigm peddled by their government keepers and their corporate fascist benefactors.
The American zombies resembling the infected mindless variety from Walking Dead inhabit the urban ghettos, semi-rural trailer parks, and putrefying suburban enclaves across the land. They probably constitute close to 50% of the population and continue to multiply. They are uneducated due to the dreadful government run public education system and the bad life choices of those who brought them into this world. They feed off the public welfare system, incapable or unwilling to work for a living. They are easily distracted by their iGadgets, 600 cable channels, sporting events, the latest fashions, and hero worship. They don’t read books, participate in civic affairs, create cohesive communities, or think for themselves. The aimlessly shuffle through their wretched lives taking what they can and being herded by those in control. As society collapses they will panic, burn their dilapidated hovels to the ground and quickly die off, with no government to sustain them.
